Capital valuations are used as the rating mechanism which councils update every three years. Auckland council issued its latest valuations for 525,000 properties in the city in November last year.

Yet already, new data shows the council valuations are already out of date with prices being achieved on the open market.

Analysis by the research division of real estate agency Bayleys shows that, within its sample catchment area of 11 Auckland suburbs alone, sale prices were recorded up to 316 percent above council valuation levels.

“On that basis, the status quo remains for anyone trying to value a residential property by suburb purely on council valuation alone that is it’s virtually impossible to use CVs as any baseline measure.”

The city-fringe suburb of Herne Bay was found to have the highest average price variation for homes selling above their CV – at 13.15 percent. The entry-level suburb of Papatoetoe was next in the Bayleys list – with homes selling for an average of 12.73 percent above their CV.

Hobsonville saw all recorded sales tracking at prices above their 2014 CVs – although Mr Little said the area’s sales data pool was much smaller than the other sample suburbs, and that a majority of those sales occurred within the new Hobsonville Point development.

Conversely, in Auckland Central, the average dwelling marketed over the past six months sold for 0.63 percent below its CV.

Mr Little pointed out that the Auckland Central sample pool was however heavily skewed toward apartment sales, which failed to experience the same degree of price changes compared to houses in the suburbs.

“Given that Auckland residential property values have continued to escalate sharply over the last year - particularly in the fourth quarter post the election – it’s hardly surprising that in virtually all of the suburbs outside of the CBD, sales prices have exceeded their council valuations,” he said.